Published Tuesday, March 6, 2001, in the San Jose Mercury News
Editorial opinion of the Mercury News
One of Silicon Valley's mass transit success stories, the Altamont
Commuter Express, just got better.
On Monday, ACE added a third train and opened a new Santa Clara stop.
Riders of the rails can now leave Manteca at 6:52 a.m. and arrive in
Santa Clara at 8:46 a.m., then head home at 6:45 p.m., perfect timing
for the 9-6 crowd. Folks with earlier schedules have already jammed
the trains that leave Stockton at 4:15 a.m. and 5:24 a.m. In fact,
it's been standing-room-only for some time on the ACE trains that
whiz through Tracy, Livermore and Pleasanton and carry commuters
around the dreaded Sunol Grade bottleneck on I-680. Addition of a
free bus service in May serving the Santa Clara and Great America
stops will give commuters yet another reason to leave their cars at
home.
From its inaugural run in April 1998, ACE has shown that mass transit
does work when workers, businesses, elected officials and transit
agencies pull together. We're confident the new train will fill up
quickly with commuters who agree.
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